Innovative Solution for Cellulosic Ethanol Biorefineries

Dewatering ethanol starting from a dilute broth (< 5% EtOH) with conventional techniques is energy intensive due to the large amount of water to be evaporated. Vaperma offers a membrane capable of replacing distillation and molecular sieve process units. The Siftek™ membrane enables the dewatering of a water/ethanol blend with higher than 50% water content. The end-product is a fuel grade ethanol product containing between 1,500 and 10,000 ppm of residual water, depending on client requirements. Energy savings with Siftek™ are very attractive and allow cellulosic ethanol producers to lower their costs. The Siftek™ solution can be implemented over a wide variety of biomass substrates.